Yudan sezu no ikou (Don't let your guard down)

Chapter VI

We stayed in the same position for a few minutes before Ryuzaki called out, gathering all of us up. Which cause us to run to the courts. She was explaining how we must practice hard since the regionals are just around the corner. Oishi and Tezuka stood beside her. She then turned her attention to me. 

"Everyone, this is Echizen Ryoko. She will be joining the regulars in their practice. Please treat her well." Ryuzaki spoke, earning a few surprised looks from the others. To think that they thought Ryoma was the only Echizen at this school. I smiled at Ryuzaki. 

"Well then, practice will continue." I froze when I heard Tezuka's deep voice. "Second and third year members in court C. Court A and B will be for the regular members." 

"Finally!" Eiji smiled, walking with Ryoma and Momo. But stopped when Ryuzaki spoke again. 

"Wait a minute, for the regular members....I have asked this man to prepare a special training menu." 

"Inui!" I was surprised to see him. 

"Yo!" He waved nonchalant, dropping a box of tennis balls and weights to the ground. He explained his weights, the red, blue and yellow cones that coordinated with the color-coded tennis balls. "Here we go Eiji!" Kikumaru-kun was doing a great job noticing the colors on the balls and hitting it to the right cone. 

"Sending it back to the same cone...being able to distinguish the colors while moving is a skill that can't be matched." Oishi said, which made me smirk. 

"That's not true." Fuji interrupted him. "Look...the next court...he's.." Oishi looked bewildered at Ryoma who was hitting just a perfectly as Eiji. 

"Red!!!"

"Isn't that blue!" Inui smiled at Eiji. 

"Huh? Liar!" Eiji missed the ball, seeing it roll on the floor. "What is this?! It was red after all!! Inui! That's not fair...you cheater!" 

"If you lose you stamina, your judgement will also be impaired." Inui caused Ryoma and Eiji to be surprised. "Kikumaru, switch positions! By the way I forgot to tell you, those who made errors will drink inui's special vegetable juice." Inui smirked holding up a cup of horrifying green liquid. The whole group of regulars got scared as Eiji asked what was in the cup. 

"Food, don't worry about it." That doesn't help us to calm down. "The taste has been thoroughly adjusted!" We all stood silently as Eiji chugged down Inui's special drink. 

"Blah! What is this?!" Eiji ran way, "Water!! Water!! Water!!" 

"Ryoma!" I called out too late to my little brother, he missed the ball and was now being terrified by Inui holding up his awful juice. He chugged it down an threw the cup, tripping over himself, running away. 

"What are you doing? Next Oishi, Kawamura!!" Ryuzaki yelled, as they tensed up. Oishi messed up and ran away leaving Kawamura even more scared. 

"Here's your racket, Taka-San." Fuji smiled. 

"Ah, sorry, Fuji.... Red!!!" I laughed at the fired up Kawamura. But he too ran away after drinking inui's juice. To only be followed by Momo-chan and Kaidoh-kun who walked away slowly but ended up running, unable to hold down the drink. 

"Fuji! You did it on purpose!" Eiji revived to point out Fuji smiling. 

"Yeah, I wanted to drink it at least once." He said taking the cup. "This is quite good, I recommend it." Which earned a sweat drop from Inui and the rest of us. 

"Someone more fearful exists." I chuckled at the trio. Though, I was slightly scare of Fuji now. I gulped as Inui looked at me. 

"Your turn Ryoko." I gulped again grabbing my brothers spare racket. "H-hai." I started hitting back each ball and calling their name out, focusing extra hard. I didn't know what in the hell was in that drink, but I sure wasn't going to find out. I sighed feeling relieved I hadn't missed a single ball. Then Inui went on telling us each what to do. "Tezuka did well in not missing any, but he needs more flexibility. Your expression is too cold." We snickered. "And Echizen, let's start with two glasses of milk a day. " 

"Even if I drink a lot of milk, I won't grow that fast." Ryoma said waking up from his nap. 

"Drink it!" We all yelled. 

"Inui is recommending it. There is no mistake." I looked at tezuka, respecting him even more. He was perfectly calm after what had happen. Such a reliable captain. 

"Back to the subject, let's add one more weight." Five weights are okay, i thought.

"We're eventually going to end up with five weighs, right Inui-senpai?" Momo asked happily. 

"I don't mind even six weights." Ryoma said, making me smirk. 

"No, for regulars....up to ten weights." Eiji, Fuji, Oishi and Taka stopped dead in their tracks. I scowled. 

"It's not funny, you...." We all started hitting Inui with tennis balls as Ryuzaki laughed to herself. 

Tezuka Pov

"Tezuka, there's no need to strain yourself. Think of the future and your rehabilitation." Ryuzaki-san said. 

"Right now I'm only thinking of winning the tournament with them." I spoke earnestly hearing a chuckle from Ryuzaki. 

"I'm sure that's not the only thing you're thinking about." 

"What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing." I furrowed my brows, unable to understand what she had meant. I looked over at Ryoko, who had been sticking extra close to Inui. I crossed my arms and ordered everyone to get back to practice. I looked at Ryoko, remembering the kiss we shared earlier. I placed my hand over lips, the feeling still lingering. I wasn't sure why, but that kiss had made me happy.

Ryoko Pov

I stayed with Inui, seeing as he had made a extra special training menu just for me. I needed to work more than the others seeing as I was a girl, and I hadn't played in two years. 

"If you fail to meet my expectations I'll have you drink my special vegetable juice." Inui smiled holding a cup of the disgusting green liquid. 

"Hah... Don't worry I'll make sure to be better than your expectations." I gulped, terrified of the nasty juice that had made everyone suffer, walking away from Inui and finding myself near Fuji. 

"Ryoko-chan, you're not going to be practicing?" Fuji asked, smiling at me. 

"Inui-kun has me on a different training than you guys. Which I must meet his expectations otherwise...." I shivered at the thought of the nasty juice and then looked at Fuji. How had he not been affected by that nasty liquid? "You are a worthy opponent."

"Huh?" Fuji looked at me, confused as to what I meant. A worthy one indeed.